Scales And Feathers
by AlmightyOstrich
Summary: Destiel Zoo AU: Dean loves animals, but he has never gotten what's so great about birds. Reptiles are better by miles. When a new guy, Castiel, comes in to manage the bird department at Winchester Zoo, Sam appoints Dean for the dask of making him feel welcome. Dean thinks Castiel is weird, and he doesn't expect a nasty eagle to be what turns his opinion around.
1. Chapter 1: All They Do Is Poop On Cars

_If you, like me, love animals (particularly reptiles and birds) and destiel, I'm sure you'll enjoy this fic. _

* * *

Dean has never understood what's so great about birds.

That is why, when Sam asks him to show the new manager of the Winchester Zoo bird department around, he wonders why his brother didn't consider anyone else before him.

"All they do is poop on cars and leave feathers all over the place", Dean complains. "And the noise. Don't get me started on the fucking noise."

"All birds don't make noise, Dean", says Sam, and sure, Dean knows that, it's obvious. Owls are quiet, creepy motherfuckers with staring eyes and a twisty demon neck, and they're no better than the lorikeets that enjoy bursting people's ear drums.

Nope, Dean does _not_ get what's so great about birds. Reptiles are better by miles.

"And he's not a bird", says Sam, a slightly amused tone to his voice. "His name is Castiel Novak, and he's a bird _expert_. He's gonna be a great asset here. And you don't meet nearly enough new people, Dean."

Dean cocks an eyebrow.

"Do I need to?"

Sam sighs.

"Yes, you do."

"What about Gabriel? If he's birdy's brother, why can't he-"

"For the love of god, don't start calling him 'birdy'", says Sam. "Besides", he adds with an expectant look, "he's single and bi. And I may not swing that way, but I'm not blind, the guy's good looking."

"_Ooh_", Dean teases automatically, "and what does Jess think about you ogling strange men?"

Sam throws him a bitchface and that's when Dean knows this conversation is over. There is no way he's going to get out of showing the new guy around now.

"So Sam stuck _me_ with the job of showing him around and like, taking care of him." Dean dumps the big, smelly pile of retic poop into the bucket Charlie is holding out for him. "As if I don't have enough to do already. I got that sick rescue ball to look after, and the ghost corn is gonna lay her eggs soon – her _first clutch_, can you believe that? Remember when I first got her and she was so small, and she bit your finger and you didn't even notice?" Dean laughs.

"Dean, you're babbling." Charlie throws the ten foot long reticulated python a glance. "Let's give Frodo some space and get on with our work."

"Yeah. Right", says Dean, following Charlie out of the enclosure into the back room and locking the door behind him. Charlie chucks the contents of the bucket into the big trash bag, closes the lid, and turns to Dean.

"You'd be at work anyway, wouldn't you?" she says. "You're not gonna be babysitting him on your free time?"

"God, no", says Dean.

"Then what are you complaining about, grumpy?" Charlie goes to the sink, turns on the tap and starts washing her hands. Dean follows her, waiting in line. "I think it's cool to have someone like him here. Gabe says he's traveled a lot, knows karate, and apparently he's a certified biologist _and _zoologist. He's one of the best, he just doesn't brag about it or publish stuff. Doesn't like the spotlight."

Dean raises his eyebrows.

"Gabriel told you that?"

"I know you think he makes everything up." Charlie shuffles aside to give Dean access to the tap and the soap as she dries her hands on a clean towel. "But in this case, I think he's just really proud of his little brother. It's not so far-fetched, is it?"

Dean knows what she's getting at – he's supposed to relate. And sure, damn straight he's proud of Sammy, his own little brother who owns this whole zoo and runs it with his wife, but that doesn't change the fact that whoever this feather-fetish guy is that's coming to work here, he's going to have feathers stuck to his shirt and dried uric acid on his cap and he's just going to be one more person making the staff room smell like bird, and Dean is decidedly not going to like him.


	2. Chapter 2: Just A Simple Bird Keeper

Of course, Dean is far too decent to let any of that show through on Monday morning when he stands outside the gate. His khaki shirt and black pants are fresh out of the dryer and the khaki cap is stuffed in his back pocket. His brain is working on filtering out curse words and replacing them with eloquent ones more appropriate for communication with people he doesn't know.

It's early. The sun is just about to rise, the light is dim and the air chilly, moist with the residue of evaporating dew.

A silver Toyota Prius rolls into the staff parking lot. Dean furrows his eyebrows, immediately judging. A health nut, maybe. Environmentalist? Nothing wrong with that – hell, Dean and everyone else at the zoo is one – but some of them can be a little crazy.

Dean thinks of stressed chickens and the sound of flapping wings as they bounce all over the pen in utter stupidity, and he hopes to whatever higher power there is that this bird dude won't be a human version of that.

When he sees the figure that steps out from the car, Dean's jaw drops.

He doesn't know what he'd expected. Sam said the guy was good-looking – and Sam knows when a person is somebody Dean would look twice at – but this is… _wow._

The 'wow' sticks itself on repeat in Dean's head like a hitching record, growing louder in volume as the man comes closer, all dark hair and five o'clock shadow, pale lips and fucking blue ass eyes and everything is, frankly, perfect.

But he's a bird guy. And Dean doesn't get birds.

Dean puts on his friendliest smile and holds out his hand.

"Hi, I'm Dean Winchester", he says. "Sam's brother."

"Castiel Novak", says the new guy, his voice surprisingly husky, "Gabriel's brother." He shakes Dean's hand with a firm grip and cold fingers.

Detecting a good bunch of responsiveness in the guy, Dean's smile becomes a little more genuine and less faked-slash-flustered.

"Nice to meet you", says Dean politely, letting go of Castiel's hand.

Castiel nods, his face straight as a plank.

"Likewise."

"So", says Dean, turning around to unlock the staff gate behind him. "Just come with me."

When they're inside and Dean has locked the gate again, he digs in one of his pant pockets and pulls out another set of keys that he hands to Castiel.

"They're all marked with a number", he explains, pointing at the pieces of tape with numbers and letters written on them stuck to the bottom of each key. "And the corresponding number is above each door. You've got one for the staff room, one for the bird department and so on. The keys to the enclosures are in the back room of the bird department. I'll show you later. Don't lose these, okay?"

"Of course."

"Alright, I'm gonna show you around the zoo and then I'm gonna leave you to Balthazar who's been managing the bird department for two weeks, since the old manager quit. He's gonna tell you more about the individual birds, and their enclosures and whatnot. You got any general questions, you come to me. I'm the manager of the reptile department, by the way. And speaking of", Dean feels himself light up a little, like a star suddenly twinkling a little brighter, "that where we're headed first."

With Castiel by his side, Dean walks briskly towards the reptile house, the place that's closest to them and the only part of the zoo he's really keen on visiting this early in the morning.

The whole reptile department is indoors. Dean begins to prop up the right door of the pair before they go inside. When Castiel sees it he immediately gets to work on the left one. When they're done, Dean shoots him an approving look.

"Thanks."

"No problem."

"No phobias or anything? We got snakes, lizards, spiders…"

"Not the slightest discomfort", says Castiel, a small, almost undetectable smile now playing across his lips. "Reptiles are fascinating animals."

Dean leads them in through the two rows of plastic flaps designed to keep the heat in. The first enclosure Castiel notices is the one that holds Frodo, the reticulated python. The ten foot long snake is not nearly full grown, but still appears huge where he lays, basking between two rocks near a heater quite close to the glass. The narrow, elongated pupil, clearly visible on the otherwise orange canvas of his eye, studies the two men with alertness as they approach and stand not far from him.

"This is our retic", says Dean proudly. "My friend Charlie named him Frodo. He's gonna about double in size over the years if we're lucky."

Dean glances at Castiel to see his reaction to the big python – or at least to the irony of it being named after a really little guy – but Castiel is just looking at Frodo with the most serene expression on his face, like an old sailor watching the sea. He does so for a long time in complete silence – long enough for Dean to start fidgeting, putting his hands in his pockets only to take them out again and switching his weight from one leg to the other.

"There is an almost eerily resemblance of conscious thought in his eyes", says Castiel finally. "It's beautiful. I've always wanted to see a reticulated python up close."

"You know some about reptiles?" asks Dean, ignoring the philosophical trail of conversation Castiel seems to want to follow.

"I haven't limited my studies to ornithology", says Castiel, throwing Dean a quick look before returning his eyes to the snake. "I find all animals interesting."

"Oh right", says Dean, suddenly remembering, "You're a zoologist, aren't you?"

Castiel turns to him fully.

"Well, there's a paper that says so. At heart I am just a simple bird keeper."

Dean doesn't know whether to smile at Castiel's unwillingness to brag or wince at the thought of one identifying one's self with anything related to birds. Dean's indecisiveness comes out in a snort and he quickly kills the rudeness of it by adding a smirk and looking down at his feet for a couple of seconds. He doesn't know what it's supposed to mean, but at least it's hard to interpret as unfriendly.

"Did I say something funny?" asks Castiel. He makes it sound like it's a genuine question. Dean chuckles.

"Nah, man." He pats Castiel briefly on the shoulder. "I'm just glad to see you're not one of those stuck-up 'doctors' who think they're automatically in the right just 'cause they've got a PhD."

Dean walks over to the enclosure on the opposite side. It holds a breeding pair of Asian water monitors – four and a half foot dark lizards with a lighter, yellowish pattern of small spots and rings along its back. They're tame as dogs, the pair of them. Dean got them for the zoo about five years ago.

"_Varanus salvator_", says Castiel before Dean gets the time to speak. "Nice enclosure."

"We do our best."

Half of the enclosure is water, going from shallow to deep, because these monitors love to swim. It's a bitch to clean sometimes, but it keeps the lizards happy.

"Have you named them as well?"

"Bonnie and Clyde", says Dean.

"Cool", says Castiel, his face still expressionless.

"Well, uh…" Realizing they shouldn't be spending all their time in here no matter how much he wants to, Dean starts to walk towards the next enclosure. "Here's our boa constrictor." He points across the room to the opposite enclosure on the right side. "And there's the green anaconda."

Continuing on his tour, Dean leads them into the rounded room that comes next, where the walls are littered with vivariums containing the rest of the reptiles as well as the arachnids. The king cobra, the coral snake, the western diamondback rattlesnake and the Gila monster have their enclosures next to a sign that informs people about their venom.

"Red and black venom lack, red and yellow can kill a fellow", Castiel recites when he sees them – a rhyme taught in some variations to make it easier for people to remember how to tell the difference between the coral snake and the harmless milk snake.

Then they look at the red tegus, the ball python, the 90 pound sulcata tortoise, and then the tokay gecko, the pair of day geckos, the leopard geckos and the Chilean rose and Mexican red knee tarantulas, before moving on to the adjacent room – also rounded – that holds amphibians, and which is always more humid than the rest of the building. They do it on purpose, not just for the animals but to create an atmosphere for the visitors.

Charlie is in there, doing daily cleaning for the red-eyed tree frogs.

"Oh, hi", she says when she sees them, smiling brightly at Castiel and extending a hand after wiping it on her pants. Despite the residue of bark and dirt on it, Castiel takes it without hesitation and smiles right back. "You must be the new guy. I'm Charlie Bradbury."

"Castiel Novak", says Castiel.

"Is this the welcome tour?" says Charlie to Dean.

"Yep", says Dean. "We're just gonna have a quick look here and then we'll move on."

"Knock yourselves out."

They look at the poison dart frogs, the big cane toad, the axolotls, the Chinese fire belly newts and the European fire-bellied toads and then they move on, taking a two-minute walk to the aquarium house where they meet Garth – the department's manager – and Adam, the latter being in the process of scrubbing the walls of the zebra cichlid tank.


End file.
